Transformation should be non-negotiable

A REPORT authored by an independent panel and chaired by retired Constitutional Court Judge Sisi Khampepe has lifted the lid on the racism which has bedevilled Stellenbosch University.

The release of the 200-page report coincidentally comes at a time when the Western Cape Education Department considers whether to take legal action against a “diversity consultant” after an uproar over a training session with Fish Hoek High School learners.

Stellenbosch University’s independent panel inquiry stems from two incidents of alleged racism in May. In one incident a white student, Theuns du Toit, entered the room of a black student, Babalo Ndwayana, and urinated on his belongings.

What the panel found was that the Afrikaans language, cultural exclusion, the toxic culture in residences, intimidation, bullying, mistreatment of staff and middle management’s resistance to transformation contributed to the university’s toxic culture.

Incidents of racism hardly made a blip on the radar of Stellenbosch University’s Office of Student Discipline, with the panel finding that since 2011, only four cases had been investigated.

The panel also found that transformation at the university happened in a “piecemeal and unco-ordinated fashion”, with the biggest resistance coming from middle management.

This is not just the story of Stellenbosch University but many other formerly white institutions where transformation is greeted with resistance, and acknowledging the pain of racism is dismissed as “wokeism”.

At the University of Cape Town racist opponents of vice-chancellor Mamokgethi Phakeng are using a probe against her management style to get rid of her and halt that university’s march towards transformation.

The DA’s Stellenbosch constituency head Leon Schreiber indicated that the party would take the panel’s findings on judicial review, accusing it of “scapegoating” Afrikaans “for any and all problems at the university”.

“Equating Afrikaans with racism is a disgusting insult to an entire language community in South Africa,” says Schreiber.

Someone should perhaps tell him that proponents of Afrikaans-only instruction have used it as a convenient cover to mask their racism and keep the university almost exclusively white.

In 2022 someone should reach out to the DA and tell them that this is reprehensible, even if they think it will win them more Afrikaner votes in the next elections.